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| Africa North |
| Egypt to build nuclear plants |
| 2007-10-30 |
| Egypt's president announced plans Monday to build several nuclear power plants — the latest in a string of ambitious such proposals from moderate Arab countries. The United States immediately welcomed the plan, in a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran. President Hosni Mubarak said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. In a televised speech, he pledged Egypt would work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency at all times and would not seek a nuclear bomb. But Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system." In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines. "The problem has arisen, specifically in the case of Iran, where you have a country that has made certain commitments, and in our view and the shared view of many ... (is) cheating on those obligations," he said. "For those states who want to pursue peaceful nuclear energy ... that's not a problem for us," McCormack said. "Those are countries that we can work with." The United States accuses Iran of using the cover of a peaceful nuclear program to secretly work toward building a bomb, an allegation Iran denies. Iran asserts it has a right to peaceful nuclear power and needs it to meet its economy's voracious energy needs. Iran's program has prompted a slew of Mideast countries to announce plans of their own — in part simply to blunt Tehran's rising regional influence. "A lot of this is political and strategic," said Jon Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Egypt is highly sensitive to the fact that Iran hopes to open its Bushehr nuclear plant next year, said Mohamed Abdel-Salam, director of the regional security program at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "(Iran's) regional role, as well as Iran's political use of the nuclear issue, have added to Egypt's sensitivity," he said. Other Arab countries' recent nuclear announcements "added extra pressure on Egypt not to delay any more." Jordan, Turkey and several Gulf Arab countries have announced in recent months that they are interested in developing nuclear power programs, and Yemen's government signed a deal with a U.S. company in September to build civilian nuclear plants over the next 10 years. Algeria also signed a cooperation accord with the United States on civil nuclear energy in June, and Morocco announced a deal last week under which France will help develop nuclear reactors there. ... Doesn't sound so peaceful after all. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #4 See also JPOST > ANALYSIS: ISRAEL STAYS MUM AS SUNNI STATES CLAMOR FOR NUCLEAR POWER artiiikle. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-10-30 18:44 |
| #3 Short flight for the IAF. |
| Posted by: RWV 2007-10-30 17:23 |
| #2 And I'll bet that ElBaradei (a native Egyptian) won't find a damned thing there either. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-30 13:53 |
| #1 Dang it. If they want it for purely peaceful reasons they should go for pebble bed reactors. Otherwise it is just asking for problems. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-10-30 13:26 |